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Movie · 2028

Movie · 2027

As a design house, Brunello Cucinelli is a name synonymous with luxury and quality. As a production company, it’s hard to know how to feel about it preceding a biographical film about its namesake. “Brunello: The Gracious Visionary” tells the story of the fashion luminary from his humble beginnings in rural Perugia, Italy to the heights of his success as an international tastemaker and proponent of what he calls “humanistic capitalism.” Described by veteran Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) as “neither a documentary, nor a feature film, nor a commercial,” it qualifies best as hagiography. But with as skilled a filmmaker at the helm as Cucinelli is a designer and entrepreneur, one may not mind being swept along by its rhapsodic portrait, even if you quickly become convinced that “The Gracious Visionary” is too generous to be fully honest about its subject. Born in 1956, Cucinelli grew up on

Andy Roddick makes his acting debut playing a version of himself in the new pickleball sports comedy “The Dink.” The film’s star Jake Johnson and the tennis champion had appeared on each other’s podcasts prior to making the movie. “He’s always funny, but he’s on another level in this movie,” Johnson told me at “The Dink” premiere on Monday. “We almost cast like a comedic actor to pretend to be an athlete, and we gambled and cast Andy and he crushes it.” It was producer Ben Stiller’s idea to offer the role to Roddick. “[Roddick’s] whole thing is he was very self-deprecating and he’s like, ‘I promise you I’m not the guy,’” Johnson said. “We were like, ‘You’re the guy. You’re the guy.’” He certainly was. “I think if you can compete at the level he competed in with sports, you can

Taiwan-based Myanmar filmmaker Midi Z has revealed that his next feature, “The Exiles,” starring Sam Worthington, David Duchovny and Ke-Xi Wu, draws on Joseph Conrad’s classic novel “Heart of Darkness,” reimagined through a contemporary, original story. Speaking with Variety during the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), where he served as a jury member 15 years after his own directorial debut, Midi Z reflects on the unlikely path that led him into filmmaking, the lasting influence of Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien and how “The Exiles” continues a career-long exploration of identity and displacement. “I never went to film school,” Midi Z says. “I was simply someone who loved cinema. I learned from online reviews, books and whatever resources I could find.” One of the defining moments of his career came while he was studying in Taiwan. Selected for the inaugural Golden Horse Film Academy in 2009, Midi Z caught the attention of Hou Hsiao-hsien,

Observing a seemingly ordinary world through the lens of teenhood can be a goldmine for filmmakers. From the perspective of young people who often feel awkward and out of place, common dynamics can look strange, while unexpected connections seem like the most natural thing in the world. Shuntaro Uchida’s “Incinerator”, which won the Jury Prize in the Proxima competition at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is of most interest for its peculiar lead protagonist, ten-year-old Kozue (played by a young actress credited simply as Karin). In her peaceful neighborhood outside Tokyo, this loner spends more time observing her surroundings than acting upon them, save for her habit of regularly stealing random objects to throw into the school incinerator. But while Kozue is a genuine, unapologetic weirdo, the film that is constructed around her soon betrays a less imaginative, more normative impulse — so much so that this coming-of-age

Wu Jing says the fingerprints of Hong Kong action cinema are still on every wuxia film made today, including his own. Speaking with Variety at the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), where he received the festival’s Excellent Achievement in Film Award, the actor-producer reflected on Hong Kong cinema’s enduring influence while celebrating a special screening of “Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert.” Directed by legendary Hong Kong action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping and adapted from Xu Xianzhe’s martial arts comic, the film was released during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, grossing $215 million, and drew an enthusiastic response at the MIFFest screening. “There are more than 3,000 shots across exactly 125 minutes and 48 seconds,” Wu said during the post-screening Q&a. “I remember every minute of it, even every sound.” Asked whether he was satisfied with the finished film, Wu saied his feelings changed throughout the production process.

In a summer heavy on films we’ve seen before in some shape or form, “Bad Counselors” is nothing if not a novelty: a faith-based message movie masquerading as a frat-bro farce, complete with PG-13 yocks and an “American Pie” alum cameo. Well, “masquerading” is perhaps unfair. Chris Dowling’s film is earnest in its attempt to extract specifically Christian life lessons from a familiar tale of manchildren forced into growing up, and goes pretty light on the Bible-bashing relative to others in its cinematic church. Still, it can’t help feeling like something of a zucchini-bread movie: more wholesome than it looks, in the manner of sweet treats devised by parents to smuggle vegetable content into their children, but ultimately less fun too. Following a limited theatrical run via Fathom Entertainment, “Bad Counselors” may find its widest audience on VOD — with an extended afterlife, perhaps, in youth church